The Northwest's Lacrosse Specialty Store

EDIT 11-3-09

Fall is here in the Northwest. Leaves are on the ground, clouds loom and sprinkle from time to time, and college lacrosse scrimmages are in full swing. With this fall comes some very hard decisions by college lacrosse players across our great nation. What head to use for the 2010 season? With new rule changes coming in the spring every single college player from D1 NCAA to D2 MCLA will have to string up a new spoon and get used to change. So lets dig in and take a look at one of this years most promising college only legal heads.

I have been toting around my stick with me this fall to my classes and trying to get some wall ball in between, appropriately the head I have been using is the Professor. The past two season I have been a staunch STX Proton Power user, and I stand by the statement that it is the best head ever made (Xcaliber and the original Blade are tied at a close second). So why did I decide to skip over the Super Power (college legal Proton Power)? Because, the allure of a new head was just too much for this gear junkie. The lines of the head are very similar to the Super Power, the biggest difference being that the ball stop doesn’t stick up in the same funny way that the Power series does, which has always bugged me aesthetically. The head measures 6 inches at the top which makes it more narrow than that of a NFHS legal head. Playing both attack and midfield I was looking for a head that would be versatile and durable, flexible yet ridged, and above all have the proper holes to string up a bag (a legal bag).

The first thing I noticed when I got this stick was its ability to pinch and pop (plunger) on a face-off. The flexibility of the stick allowed me to plunge and redirect quickly on a face, but  was not really stiff enough to block the clamp or punch. So if you have fast hands then this is a decent face-off head, but how would it fair on defense and attack?

When it came time  to string the Professor I handed it off to a friend and teammate Jake Ostrow. He worked the bottom half of the stringing on the inside of the head giving it a mesh pinch and bypassing the new rule changes. The hole patterns allowed Mr. Ostrow to string up a nice low pocket with about a 6 out of 10 on the whip scale. After taking this stick to a tourney down in California I am sold on its ability to hold the ball through rough checks, and give a little punishment on the defensive end of the field.  (After returning to practice from the tourney I must report that my Professor broke at Friday’s practice…. I believe the fracture was caused by taking face offs. The sidewall on the bottom side of the stick snapped right next to the last stringing hole. If you are familiar with the breaking point on the original Razor it is the same spot.)

So I am loving the Professor but what would I change? I think there no reason this head is not a little stiffer. After some faces and a couple good checks on D the head began to warp (I was able to bend it back) and I could see this only getting more permanent after a few more games. Luckily I was only filling in for our face-off guy. Other than that I am pretty much 100% happy with my Professor. It is a solid addition to the STX family and should stick around so long as the rule change does…